Spring feels a little early this year, and appeared almost overnight in the form of this tree that welcomes me as I drive into my subdivision (“addition” if you are proper Hoosier and know your lingo). This tree, along with 12! new trees planted on our entry drive. I say “entry”; our subdivision only has two streets. I like to live where everyone knows my name, I guess.
I’m trying something NEW this spring. We’re putting in a small garden. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to plant a thing. I can cook it, but I’m not certain I can grow it. The girls and I made starter pots of sunflower seeds on Saturday, with the hopes of growing and graphing them during our “SUMMER OF FUN!!!” (more on that later).
I know this revelation sounds counter-intuitive, considering my family can grow hundreds of acres of crops successfully. I was in charge of staying out of trouble during my summers on the farm, which for me and my cousin Jayme, was a full time job. Ergo, I did not learn HOW to grow beans, but I do know how to make mud shoes while running through bean fields barefoot in a rainstorm.
Step #1: Dirt. I guess I took good dirt for granted while I was growing up. When you grow up 60 miles from nowhere, you don’t have big buildings, but you do have lots and lots of DIRT. Apparently, good dirt. When you live just outside of a big city, they haul all of that beautiful topsoil away. And they don’t BRING IT BACK. Which makes no sense in a state obsessed with beautiful lawns. You haven’t seen lawn worship until you’ve seen my Grandpa measure the height of his grass before cutting it for the third time in a 7 day stretch. And then water it slowly for 8 hours straight. And then fertilize it. Before rolling it. I like to refer to his lawn as “wall to wall carpet”.
So I must first achieve some quality topsoil that I can rototiller into my clay lawn. Unless I want to grow something that grows well in clay. Play dough. If I were to become a play dough farmer, I’d be rich. Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas on starting a garden are VERY WELCOME AND MUCH APPRECIATED. Unless you are going to suggest anything involving black soil. Thank you, but digging my heels into what I know is 100% cow patty isn’t on the docket for my SUMMER OF FUN!!!. Had my fill of stepping in manure as a child. It wasn’t funny then, and it’s less funny now. So any OTHER suggestions about dirt…bring it on.
2 responses to “Ahhh…SPRING”
It feels a little less like spring today. You aren’t going to like what I have to say about garden dirt. 😉 One of the most important parts is that it drains well. If you left your garden all clay then you would end up with big puddles and seeds that might not be able to push through that stuff. You want to mix your existing clay with some nice dirt and organic matter. For our garden, we mix our existing clay stuff with the organic top soil, compost material from our compost pile, and a mix of dirt and manure. Hey, if you want good veggies you have to get dirty missy. I also have opinions about the the type of beans to plant. ..
Lori, there are lots of wild plants – called “weeds” by some that are called ‘claybusters.’ They tend to be native perennials that flower – beautifully – once a year. You could seed your backyard, or a small part of it, with a mix of this type of wild flower mix and see what happens. Some of these plants are even medicinal! Check out http://www.prairienursery. com 1800-476-9453 or http://www.prairiemoon.com to see some examples. Not only do you get plants in your backyard, these plants offer sorely needed habitat to migrating birds, butterflies and land animals.
Another alternative is putting raised beds. We can help you get started. Just say the word! K